A half-empty building in Manhattan was sold at an Internet auction for within $1 million of the property’s value at the height of the boom in 2007, underscoring investors’ faith in the real estate recovery.The six-story office tower at 246 Fifth Ave. was purchased for $19 million last week by HH Realty Equities, a New York-based owner and developer, Ariel Akkad, a principal at the firm, said in a telephone interview. The sale was conducted onAuction.com LLC, an online real estate broker.The building’s previous owner defaulted on $14.5 million in debt that was part of a $3.6 billion commercial-mortgage backed securities deal sold during the market’s peak in 2007. The property’s value, which stood at $20 million in 2007, fell as low as $8.4 million in September 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Higher prices are a boon for bondholders, enabling them to recoup more cash on soured loans.“If this building is back to the peak that means everything in the city is back to the peak,” said Ben Thypin, director of market analysis for Real Capital Analytics, a New York-based property research firm. “This particular property needs a lot of work.”Read More: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-09/manhattan-building-purchased-online-shows-boon-for-bondholders.html

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Ben Carlos Thypin

I am currently the co-founder of Quantierra, the world's first data driven real estate brokerage and investment manager. In my former life as Director of Market Analysis at Real Capital Analytics, I worked with press outlets large and small to provide them with great data and insightful commentary. Here are some of the results of this collaboration. For the rest, please check out the News Archive.